365 : Liran Hirschkorn – Take the time to build out a brand, then market around it to get the best results on Amazon

Great advice from Liran or “Yoda” as we like to call him. His advice is to pick your lane or line and then build it out, marketing to all in it and you will get crossover results. We also talk a lot about networking and what it can do for you when you are around higher level players. You ultimately raise your game too. We talk partnerships, relationships and loving what you do.

Mentioned:

Liran’s Facebook (If you are a high level seller looking to up your game then you shpuld talk with Liran)

Amazing Freedom’s upcoming course– (PM me and I will add you to my list and my family will prep your first order (you pay for the supplies) and Andy Slaman’s and I will hold a group 2 hour conference call from our warehouse to help you drill down in your Private Label business.

Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)

Liran: [00:00] Yes, definitely making better choices are much more confident in the products that, that I bring in this q four. I brought in some new products on both of my brands and I, and they’re all successful. One has not been as successful, uh, but you know, still selling regularly and the others have sold so well and no reviews on those products. It’s just the message.

Cool voice guy: [00:27] Welcome to the ecommerce moment, didn’t where we focus on the people, the products, and the process of ecommerce selling today. Here’s your host, Steven Peterson.

Stephen: [00:41] Hey, just wanted to jump in and talk to sponsors. First off is scope from sellerlabs. You hear me talk about a lot because we use it a lot and again, if, if you’re thinking, hey, how do I make my listing better? Well, the best place to look is the listings that are performing well and sculpt will allow you to do those reverse hastened lookups. Use that reverse and look up what’s working for them and then emulated. Figure out how to fine tune years and you’re just going to get better and better and better. Look a reverse lookup yours and you’re gonna. See your best performers, right? But then just get rid of those low performing and put better words in there and just fine tune it, test, try and see what happens and then when it see results, keep tweaking and then just go through every one of your listings and you’re just going to have so much success.

Stephen: [01:27] So sellerlabs.com, forward slash scope. Use the code momentum. Say Fifty Bucks and tell them I sent you because it’s just an awesome thing. I’m very fortunate to be connected with these guys, but I just love what they do. And that’s why. Second thing in this episode, you’re going to hear me talk with a Lebron Hirsch corn about basic freedom and their upcoming course and it’s not out yet, and I’m going to be putting it in. If you sign up, subscribe to my newsletter. You’re going to see, I’ll, I’ll put in links for the, uh, affiliate code that I have because it is an affiliate code and they do pay me. So I’d never hide that. However, um, doesn’t cost you an extra dime. And the beauty is, if you decide to use my service, I’m, I’ll prep your first order for you. Um, you can send it right to me at my warehouse.

Stephen: [02:10] You can send it either by airfreight, I have an address for that, or I could have a loading dock, I can receive it. And Prep your first one. I’ll do a cursory inspection for you, look for anything that’s damaged, taking images, send it to you, and then help you figure out the best way to package it to get it in. And I can turn it around really quick. It’ll be meanwhile wife and my son personally handling. And we’re confidential. We don’t tell anybody anything, we don’t let anybody see your stuff. Very, very cautious. So in order to get on that list and haven’t opened the course yet is send me a private message saying that you’re, you’re interested in, in, in all, uh, as, as the information comes up, I’ll send it to you and then we can and we can talk about it. And again, a no strings, um, and it’ll be me looking out for you.

Stephen: [02:50] And so, uh, again, there’s no extra cost for you. I do benefit, so not hiding that fact, but I think it’s pretty cool. So anyway, that’ll be a with amazing freedom. Their courses are going to launch. I think it’s in January. And Man, Oh man, you see the people have been so much success. I just believe in it so much. So again, just private message me and then we’ll talk about it. Let’s get into the podcast. Welcome back to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. This is episode 365. Lauren Hirsch corn. Um, man, oh man, when I sit back and I think about how far a businesses that I’ve seen that I know what they sell and, and, and, and know the little bit of inner workings, how far they’ve come. Um, Lauren’s products in his examples is brands have, have just leapfrogged others. Um, and it’s intentional and we talk specifically about a lot of it and what it takes and the investment of time, right?

Stephen: [03:47] When you think of capital, most people think of money, but your time is capital and you really need to be cognizant of how much you have and how much you really can afford to give out because there are so many other moving pieces to this business. And again, I think he’s such a good example of someone that’s really figured out the pieces he’s going to work on and he’s going to maximize his efforts on it. And it’s really, it’s interesting for me. Some things I thought I knew, I have no clue. And uh, I guess that’s like a lot of things, but it really, really comes out and he does such a great job on it. Let’s get into the podcast.

Stephen: [04:24] All right. Welcome back to the ECOMMERCE women podcast. We’re excited about today’s returning guest because it’s been two plus years since we’ve done an interview interview with background stuff. Um, but his business has grown phenomenally. I think as a person know, or as a seller, let me say it that way. He has grown phenomenally and, uh, has really has really taken the lead in helping so many other people become better sellers. Liron horse hurts corn. Oh, sorry about that buddy. Welcome Lauren. Thanks for having me on. Be Back. Sorry to butcher butcher A. I’ve had 18 thoughts. Uh, you bring that out in me though. Oh, by the way, Lee runs nickname is Yoda. Just so everybody gets that out there. We call him Yoda. We send them Yoda pitchers because, you know, it’s a weird position for you to be in. Um, but you do get the most technical high end questions of anybody I’ve ever seen. Is that your experience?

Liran: [05:23] Yes. Uh, I mean, I’m sure there’s a lot of other better people than me that know the technicalities and in and out. But, uh, I do tend to get technical questions and uh, I guess, I guess I’m proud of the fact that, that, uh, a lot of the time I’m able to, uh, know the inner workings of a, you know, Amazon

Stephen: [05:49] well, it’d be net comes with experience, right? I mean, that’s just, you know, it’s funny. I’m sitting here thinking about this, you know, you have two main product lines now to brands in essence. Yet how many of you uh, launched products, stopped, walked away from, even though they were successful, I mean, how many would you say?

Liran: [06:14] Definitely a bunch of products that I launched that I walked away from. And one thing that I’m going to be doing very shortly is I’m going to be doing a skew analysis of everything this year that I’ve sold every single skew that I have and look back and kind of weed out, you know, for product and sell enough, then I’m not going to replenish our product into 2019 because I think there are better opportunities. So, you know, if a, if a product didn’t do, at least, you know, let’s say $3,000 a month in sales average throughout the year, that product is, is not going to be replenished even though it’s, you know, it could be like a, a single, uh, I just want to have money tied up and things that are not moving fast enough. So I think it’s one of those things that if you haven’t had enough of those, you probably haven’t taken on a enough risk in terms of launching new products.

Stephen: [07:05] And how do you get past the emotional attachment? I mean, maybe, maybe it’s because you’ve done so many, but that’s definitely. I mean I think about some of the, my not even singles, they were not even ground rule doubles. They were just out. But I mean I’m still emotionally attached to them. There’s a sexiness to it. It’s like, Oh man, I created that. How do you get past that?

Liran: [07:27] So I definitely have an emotional attachment to my brands so, you know, I would say that, you know, and even, you know, considering and I’m looking at in 2019 to sell one of those brands and I’m working around, you know, optimizing margins and everything else and I feel like it’s almost a to sell the brands, it’s almost bittersweet because you’ve worked to build this thing and you’re kind of giving her baby away. So I definitely have an emotional attachment to a to my brand, but within my brand, you know, if I have a product, a particular product that’s just not performing as well as others and I feel like there’s better opportunity. I don’t feel that same sort of tie into that particular product. I guess for me, I’m more attached just to the brand that I created and I’m okay letting go. Things that are, you know, that aren’t sort of the 80, you know, the 80 slash 20. Right. And I guess probably everybody has this within their, within their brand, you know, I have the five products out of the 30, let’s say the are the key drivers and they keep trying to add to that list and the only way to do that is by weeding out the ones that are not in, in, you know, trying to add more or focus more on the things that are working well and trying to add to that list. But I don’t feel, I don’t feel as emotionally tied to a particular product per se.

Stephen: [08:47] I think that’s, that’s the best explanation because it’s definitely products when it, you know, because I haven’t really created a big brand and so that makes sense. Right. Or even two similar items to create that brand, so that makes perfect sense to me. Is that fall in love with the brand, not the product and then you know, really put your effort into it because I would think that things that you’re walking away from there, they’re not failures, they’re learnings, right? I mean the things that you’ve taken away, you’ve gotten smarter now you’re better, you’re making better choices.

Liran: [09:19] Yes, definitely. Making better choices. I’m much more confident in the products that, that I bring in this, this q four. I brought in some new products on both of my brands and I would and they were all successful. One has not been as successful but still selling regularly and the others have sold so well and no reviews on those products. It’s just the massive demand in q four. One of them is particularly seasonal for Christmas that is already sold out at this point, so I didn’t, I wasn’t super aggressive because I didn’t know how it would do it and I knew it’s particularly at Christmas item, so I don’t want to hold it till January so it was more conservative and then next year I’ll be able to sort of double down on that. But yes, you get much more confident in the products that you’re bringing in.

Liran: [10:08] You get to understand your niche much better. Uh, and yeah, as far as letting go of products, there’s, there’s also some products that, you know, maybe two or three years ago we’re doing a little bit better for me. Um, and now you know, they’re not in vogue as much, so I’ll, I’ll weed those out. Especially one of my friends in the clothing niche. So there’s a little bit more to that in the clothing niche. Uh, but also, uh, you know, in the beginning when I started, if a product was doing two or $3,000 a month, that was great. It’s generating some cash flow and it’s doing well, but I feel like as you get more experience and you start having products that are doing 10,000 plus a month, you want to try to add on more of those types of products because it’s just a business decision because I don’t want to have inventory sitting on a third party warehouse that you know, just moves really slowly.

Liran: [10:57] It’s costs me more money to keep that inventory, et Cetera as opposed to finding more of those types of products that just move more regularly faster and just do better. So I think part of any businesses just weeding out the bottom and trying to, you know, move more things to, to the top and or adding new products and especially with Amazon. I think launching new products is a way, one of the ways to be successful, especially if you’re doing some innovation or some design changes and other people are trying to copy you. You’re kind of ahead of the game always when you’re launching new products.

Stephen: [11:28] It leads me to two questions and made me think about one, do you benefit from the brand? To your new products because you’re only working on the two brands, do new products benefit because of your brand being so well established now

Liran: [11:42] in some aspects? Yes. So there’s a few ways that you can sort of leverage that one if you’re adding a variation to an existing listing that’s already getting traffic. So that’s, you know, whether or not you have brands, you know, searches people searching for your brand on Amazon. So that’s one way. Uh, but even, even not then. Yes, there are people that are searching for my brand name, you know, I don’t do like a ton of social media, but we post on social media every week for both of our brands on instagram and on facebook. And you do have a small audience there. So I do see searches like when it comes to my sponsor product ads, I do see like in the search term report, converting terms when people are people searching for the brand name. So that’s kind of cool to see. So, so new products can have visibility by people searching that.

Liran: [12:29] And the other part is using Amazon storefront. So if you have a, if you have brand registry and somebody clicks on your brand name or you can send traffic directly to the storefront from headline search ads, then they now see almost like your mini website and they can discover new products. So I definitely think that as you are building you can take advantage of that at the same time. It’s not for me at this point, it’s not enough for me through rely only on that meaning you know, there could be a product where on my website I would add that product because somebody is coming to my website and they’re already seeing you know, one product and now I can add a related product. So let’s say for water bottles or something silly like that. Let’s use an example. So let’s say I’m in the outdoor, a niche and I’m selling like grills or some products like that that are doing well on Amazon.

Liran: [13:24] They’re starting to do well on my website now. I could add a barbecue glove to my website and somebody might buying the grill and the grill brush him and some other products like that might see the barbecue gloves and an add them on. Amazon is not sort of, Amazon is not that experience all the time unless they’re in my storefront. So I can’t rely just on that and bring in barbecue gloves to Amazon because that’s super competitive and maybe I can’t differentiate it very much and it wouldn’t make sense to bring that product to Amazon. So I can’t at this point in my sort of a brand life cycle. I’m not getting enough of that. You know, brand searches where I could say somebody’s searching for my brand so they’re going to find my grill and they’re going to have a barbecue gloves and they’ll buy both. And that’s enough. So I, I, I think you need to still look at the data on Amazon, unless you have a brand where you start really getting traction where a lot of people are searching for your brand name, then you could start to potentially come in and compete on some of those products because you have enough searches for people looking at your,

Stephen: [14:19] at your brand. So like a Nike with shoe laces and shirts because people are okay, but, but if you’re selling a Steve’s water bottle and it’s doing well, that doesn’t mean they’re looking for is Steve Straws or whatever. Right. I mean that makes sense. Correct.

Liran: [14:36] But I might be able to sell some additional units of that product every month because somebody discovered my Amazon storefront or you know, so I might get some incremental sales, but at this point for me, my brand is not on a big enough level where I can only rely on that. But I, it’s possible to get there.

Stephen: [14:56] Well, yeah. I was going to ask that question. Have you seen other brands that, you know, people, I don’t want to go to big brands. I want to talk about people that have been able to really. That’s cool.

Liran: [15:05] Cool. Yeah, so a good friend of mine, I’ll be seeing him for dinner tomorrow night. Paul Miller, you know Mr Jones, Mr Cosey phones. There are a lot of searches for cozy phones on Amazon. Thousands of searches a month probably at least. So when he launches a new product, he’s got less work to do on Amazon and he has no public relations. A company that’s doing outs, you know like getting influencers and blog articles and things like that. So he’s doing things right. He’s building an audience. He’s got a, I don’t know how many thousands and thousands of people on their facebook page who like their facebook page, so when they want to, when they add a new product, Amazon, it’s a little bit easier because people are already searching for the brand name and then they can discover that product can come up on the first page under the, you know, or the second page under the brand name search and people who kind of scroll through. So that’s where, uh, you know, I think if you’re, if you’re building the more you do outside of Amazon that more people are going to come to Amazon and just search for the brand. I think so. Uh, so, so you can get to that point, right? The cozy phones, his company that started few only a few years ago and they’re able to take advantage of this. So this, I, and I, uh, my prediction is that 2000, 19, 2020, you really, you’re gonna have to focus more on brand building in order to have success on Amazon.

Stephen: [16:31] I think Paul’s a great example of somebody who’s only working on you would be to, um, other than older coaching and stuff you do, but are working on developing that brand to its capacity. And to me that’s, that’s the difference between, that’s an outlier, right? I used to think he’s crazy. He’s always traveling and he’s going to so many conferences and so many learnings and he sends so many mastermind just like you, and yet as he tells me, uh, over a little Martini or a Tito’s or something like that, is that he gets something from each one of them and he comes back and makes minor tweaks to his business and it’s exploded. He doesn’t pack boxes or in his case bags, he doesn’t do all those things, although he sweats it, he doesn’t. And I mean, I think that that’s, you’re right. That’s a great example of somebody who’s doing it. Let me ask you this because this is something I was thinking about too, and I want to compare it for a

Liran: [17:22] couple of years ago. Okay. What you said there are guilty of that too. I mean, 100 percent. What you said there, and I went through a recent personal development event, nothing to do with Amazon, just networking by the way. I made some great connections at that event, including a person at my table that refer their brother to our who has some products on Amazon that got into our course. I’m including a person at our table that’s a branding expert that’s helping people in the packaging design right now. I, I’m really good. Some really good networking, but one of the, one of the biggest quotes I took away from that, uh, during someone’s presentation was that the only thing different in your life in five years is going to come from the books you read and the people you meet. And I totally believed that, uh, you know, I’ve had some meetings this week in New York and somebody introduced me to this concept of reaching out to a companies that had, that do these subscription monthly box, right? They curate products from different sources and reaching out to them to wholesale your product to them and gave me some, some, a couple of good businesses that I should reach out to that have a huge audience. So like all these little ideas that you get that can kind of spark something big only comes from meeting other people. Um, so I’m a big believer in getting away from your computer, going out and networking and not just within the Amazon world. Right. There’s other, there’s so much else out there.

Stephen: [18:45] Well, I, I, because of you, um, and Paul, I joined a mastermind. I guess it’s coming up on a year and for me it’s all content, people, tv and stuff like that. It’s been phenomenal though because it’s completely outside of the selling world and their perspective. It’s refreshing because I, you know, I think sometimes we get too close to what we do. We, we get so myopic, we’re not looking outside and then all of a sudden they’re like, well, what about this and what about. I’m like, I never thought about it, you know? All right. Let me ask you this because I think this is this, I think you have a good perspective on this in the old days, sourcing then manufacturing and then marketing, really bringing a product to market, right? Those three stages, how, you know, compare it to two years ago, you know, how much time did you spend on sourcing and then manufacturing because I would believe that one of the big advantages of having done private labels so much working with so many different types of products, you know, whether it be, uh, you know, materials are, um, I don’t even know what the right word I want to use, um, that clothing, but that type of a fabric, fabric, textile, right?

Stephen: [19:54] Textural wood, glass, plastic, you’ve done all those different things. And so as I sit back and I think about that, that piece of it, you’ve, you’ve identified manufacturers, you’ve, you’ve learned the lingo or at least even through Osmosis, you picked up quite a bit of that stuff, right? So the middle piece to me would seem to be a really big advantage, but the beginning piece, the sourcing, you know, finding the right products on Amazon to, to, to create. And then the marketing side, how different is it today than what it would have been two years ago? I mean, you get a, I’m, it’s like, would you have spent a lot of time finding products to sell back then where today it’s less time because you’re spending so much more on marketing to get my question.

Liran: [20:41] Yes. So there’s a couple of different components to this. So today I can give you and what I’m going

Liran: [20:48] to be a kind of, uh, talking to, uh, our inner circle group, you know, we have this private group on our, on our Webinar next week is building your product pipeline for 2019 and it gets a lot easier to build that product pipeline when you already have an existing successful product. So today, without doing any research, I could list out for you 20 products that I want to launch for 2019 and 20 products. 20 products. I don’t know that I’ll get the 20 percent related to what you’re, you’re to Berlin is related to the two brands, including a new brand that I’m working on with a, with a partner who you probably have had on the show. Kellyanne? Yup. Yup, Yup. Yup. So we have a new brand there but I can list out to you even though I probably with this, with this one of my brands, a w, you know, launching 20 products probably is not realistic.

Liran: [21:38] These are higher priced products. I’m also now in Europe so I need to have inventory for both Europe and us. Takes more capital so I don’t know but, but, but in theory I could take 20 slash 20 products and put them there and also it requires capital. Right? So I haven’t, I don’t have an investor in this. It’s all based on cash flow so I’ll probably end up launching seven new products let’s say in that, in that one brand or something like that. But the point is that it’s very easy for me now that I know the niche too, I don’t, I’m not really spending a lot of time on product research because I have existing brands and I kind of know the next products that I already could launch and it’s just really a matter of prioritizing, like looking at my, looking at which products I might eliminate, um, you know, from possibly eliminate.

Liran: [22:24] For example, I have one, one product that I actually bought out from somebody else. I had the story, somebody was infringing on my patent and I made a deal with them. I just bought out their product from them and it turned out it wasn’t great quality. So I’m going to have to get rid of that product. Um, and, and, you know, there’s certain things I’m just not gonna keep and then what’s going to replace that and what new products I’m going to add. But I don’t need to really spend time on product research for new products, for, for private label because I know my market that I’m in and I know the opportunity. On the other hand, I’m also spending more time now because I know more on the manufacturing component, so it’s almost like a a blessing and a curse. Sometimes the more you know, right?

Liran: [23:08] Because in the beginning when you are starting private label, he talked to a supplier, they tell you you’re going to do this for you. You’re all you don’t know the potential problems you may face with a product or you don’t know. If you’re a first time manufacturing in China, you don’t know the potential quality issues you might have. Then you do an inspection and you learn what the issues are. Hopefully you do an inspection right, and you learn what the issues are and then you start saying, well, we need to fix this and this and this, so now when I have a new product, I have qc criteria. I have A. I have a one page document and sometimes it takes doing that first inspection. If it’s a new product you’ve never done before and you don’t know that niche niche at all, but now that I already know my niche, when I have a new product, I’ve qc criteria that I need the factory to or the trading company, whoever it is to agree to.

Liran: [23:52] So there’s more work in terms of the more, you know, meaning setting up that QC criteria. I’m on the, and this is custom criteria for you. I mean, so you’ve, I mean because and inspection company will give you, hey, we’ll do these five things and inspection company wants to hear from you, uh, you know, what are you looking for, what are the potential problems? Right. And then they’ll go, then they’ll go and if you don’t give them the potential problems, that’s fine. They’ll go in, they’ll take pictures, they’ll look at things, they’ll find things on their own. But you know, now that now that I know more, there’s other things I think about. I have a new factory or a new product that I’m going to deal with it. I might want to do a social audit, something I never did before. Now when I started even know what it was, but I want to send somebody in before I even place an order with that factory.

Liran: [24:38] Maybe I got a sample, the sample looked good. Now I want to send somebody in before even deal with that because maybe when somebody goes there and sends me pictures of what the factory actually looks like and the mess there and the way it looks, I don’t want to deal with them because the factory is a mess. I don’t think mass production is going to go very well there or you know, maybe they don’t have good working conditions for their employees or. So this is called a social audit. That’s something I would do select. The more you know, the more you are aware, the more you kind of know if some of the potential pitfalls and you know, you want to make sure that you’re doing things the right way, but at the end of the day this is going to lead to a better quality product than somebody who doesn’t have that knowledge.

Liran: [25:15] That didn’t go through that process. And that’s, you know, that ordered a product that, you know, how many, what percentage of people are doing private label and not even doing an inspection, right, because they don’t know. And every time they don’t know, and every time they don’t, they’re taking a risk because there’s this thing quality feed a factory in China sees you’re not doing inspections well that means they’re going to try to maybe maybe cut a corner, maybe they’re changing the material a little bit and think you’re not going to realize and they’re gonna you know, it’ll, it’ll lower their cost. So the more you are strict up front and show them that you are very serious of how to quality product, the more you’re likely to get that. And if they agree to qc criteria and inspection fails, then you can get them or try to negotiate with them to pay for that second inspection or so.

Liran: [26:04] So there’s a lot. So now that I do a lot more work upfront when I’m looking to source a product from the factory as opposed to when I started two years ago, like I don’t know if I’m my first order, if I ever did inspection or knew about inspections or, or did any of that, you know. And so it was like, okay, I went to a factory, spoke to somebody in Ali Baba, sent me a sample sample. Looks good, go good, let’s place an order. It was like easy, but at the same time that you’re taking on a much bigger, much higher level of risk and through obviously sometimes learning the hard way you do, you don’t do an inspection, you get an order that’s, you know, uh, that, that you have products in there, you start getting complaints from customers. You quickly learned the hard way that you, you know, that quality is one of the biggest things that you need to kind of be on top of an insurer when you’re dealing with, uh, with China, especially if you’re building a brand, right?

Liran: [26:54] Especially if you’re building a brand, because you know, when you’re doing ra or oa or when you’re doing wholesale, it’s like, okay, if the listing ultimately starts to go from four and a half stars to three stars, then your stuff is just not going to sell as fast, but eventually you’ll start out of this product and like, you should probably won’t. You’ll find another one. You won’t reorder rate or whatever. Right? This is now your brand. You might have a thousand units in inventory, 2000 units in inventory, and if you’re four and a half stars or four stars ghosted three, you’re not in a good position, you know, and especially early on with a product, you get a few, you know, you get one, one star review as your first review, you know, you are in a very, very difficult position. So ensuring all this with private label is super, super important and some products are more complex than others. And um, so there’s, there’s a lot too. So, so now there’s a lot of preparation that you need to do in order to get that high quality that, that you want. So I don’t spend, so I would say I spend, I don’t spend a lot of time on product research, but I’m more focused on my product quality.

Stephen: [28:01] How about a marketing now? I mean, because you know, you mentioned the social media aspects that you’re using that a few said Pinterest, but I know instagram and knows other things. They’ve really become an important part. Facebook ads. They’ve really become an important part to bring a product used to be right when you, when you launched on Amazon, Amazon did everything for you. Now you know, I don’t care what product you’re launching, there’s a competitor running an ad on your page period, right? I mean, I don’t know what percentage of ad revenue, what percentage of revenue advertising is for Amazon, but it’s absolutely growing leaps and bounds. So you’re doing stuff outside of that too. What, what percentage now? I mean, is that pretty significant for, you know,

Liran: [28:47] it’s, it’s not. Um, and, and the reason is because, you know, early on this year I hired an agency a and spent, spent a pretty good amount of money on facebook ads to like shopify. And honestly, the conversions, we’re just not so great. And so I pulled back on it and I said I’m going to just go back and focus on Amazon. So right now I’m not doing a lot of facebook ads. Um, I, um, I’ve done some throughout the year but I’m not doing a lot, but we are posting on social media, I’ve run some contests and things like that in order to get, you know, likes to the page. So I’ve used something like wishpond, for example, to do some contests where people can enter in, they have to like the page they have gotten likes on the page and then now we post every week we have at least one or two posts on, on the, uh, on the social media pages and we do get some engagement.

Liran: [29:44] So we had a recent post that got like 19 comments and like a few shares for me that’s like pretty good engagement on a, on a facebook page for my brand. So, uh, and you know, I have seen this fourth quarter, uh, you know, some sales. I mean, I’m getting now sales regularly and every day on my shopify, nothing that even comes close to matching Amazon, but I’m getting sales everyday now on shopify and I believe that’s coming from, from social media. Um, so it’s doing something but it hasn’t been a major, uh, a major focus, although I am in the process of taking a course related to, you know, facebook marketing, I’m an Amazon and that is something that I want to do more of for 2019, but I want to learn how to do it better myself. I’m hiring an agency just didn’t work for me.

Stephen: [30:36] I think the communication is, there’s always something lost in that, especially when you’re not the giant brand. But then, so I was thinking about this when you’re saying that is the advice that you give or that you do is try to do everything or do each well because I’m sitting here thinking about that, what you said about, you know, hey, we got add a shopify store. You should be selling on Walmart. You should be over in Europe, you should be in Canada. Hey, what about Japan? Later on, right? All those different things, all those distractions, what you just said is that weight, not these other things just didn’t bring enough return. So in focusing on Amazon, is that because you haven’t reached capacity on Amazon and therefore that’s the better return for now?

Liran: [31:21] Definitely have not reached capacity on Amazon because again, you know, I have these, I have additional products that I, that I wanted to do that I want to utilize and yeah, definitely did not reach, have not reached capacity, uh, on Amazon. And, and the answer is that I don’t think you should be trying to spread yourself thin and go in 10 different directions. Um, I didn’t start Europe till very late this year because my focus is because it’s always been a question of where am I putting my money, my launch, we’re gonna do product in the U or am I or am I buying a lot more inventory to be able to send to to Europe? And so I think you should first before you do, I think you should start with Amazon and you should focus on Amazon. You should focus on having, you know, a one successful product and then going to your next successful product.

Liran: [32:09] Then after a year or after some time, uh, you know, then, or if you want to have a shopify site, fine, do it, but don’t go and spend thousands of dollars on like outside marketing now. And think that now that you have a website, you need to start marketing and focus on Amazon. To Me Amazon is much easier because you have the consumer trust, you have traffic, you have it. It’s just a lot easier. You know, when you, when you have a website, you need to think about building a site that’s going to convert, that’s going to get somebody who trust, they have no idea who you like. All these things are components, a conversion optimization, right? Like all these things are components of a successful website and it’s not something that I think you could just put up there. And like the sales are gonna come in. So if you want to, yeah, it’s not magic.

Liran: [32:52] So if you want to have a website, just if somebody googles you or something and you want to have like a nice looking website, you spend 500 or a thousand bucks. I’m like having somebody build your shopify site or whatever. Fine, do it, but don’t lose focus. I think your best opportunity starting out is Amazon and if you’re in the US, Amazon us, if you’re in Europe, launch in Europe or, or launching the US, start with one of those and then, you know, and then move on. But uh, for me Amazon is always, you know, Amazon has always done very well and when I’ve, you know, tried to Kinda what I’ve tried to do my website or just get like really good sales on my website. It hasn’t, it hasn’t worked as well. Um, so this year I’m probably going to attempt, but I’m going to attempt to probably to learn how to do it myself better. Um, and, and not go with an agency that’s going to require, you know, $4,000 a month minimum to kind of work with them and, and test. So, uh, I wouldn’t, uh, in my opinion, focus on Amazon and yet don’t go into Japan and Europe and do all these things all at once. You’re going to spread yourself too thin. I would say focus on first having one, you know, successful product, move onto your next one, and then when you have five, six successful products, then start thinking, okay, what else can I do here?

Stephen: [34:09] Yeah. Then you can build them out. Yeah. You touched on it earlier about networking in a, I want to just go with just a smidge deeper on that. So like, like a Paul Miller, um, that relationship you get as much from Paul as he does from you, right? Is that fair? Because it poses an expert on licensing, for example. Right? He does, he’s really done it. He’s done it more than once he’s replicated and he’s hitting home runs, uh, with, with a paw patrol and those guys. So I think that that’s the key is that you are, you know, that you’re hanging around with the five end of the five people. You hang with it, but you’re putting effort to really get around people that are operating at a high level. Right? Is that fair?

Liran: [34:53] Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, and you know, at this like at this point, you know, when I go to an event or you’re giving us,

Stephen: [35:00] but I just want him to qualify that you’re giving as much as you get it. So I don’t want to. You’re not taking advantage. You’re giving it to.

Liran: [35:05] Yeah. Yes. And, and, and at this point when I go to an event, it’s to, yeah, you, you never know the person that you’re going to meet or the person that you meet that will introduce you to somebody. And so I don’t really come in with like an expectation other than meeting people and talking to them and sharing with, you know, sharing with them and you know, sort of learning, learning from each other. Um, you know, I, when I was in my, when I had an insurance business, uh, I used to be part of Bni and want to be an Eis, sort of their is givers gain. And I, I believe in that. If you add value to somebody else, there’s this law of reciprocity that they’re going to want to add value back to you. And uh, you know, and it kind of goes back to that, uh, to that statement of the only thing that’s gonna Change Your Life is the people that you meet.

Liran: [35:55] And uh, those relationships. A Tony Robbins says the same thing, right? That you, you get everything you want through, through others. And so, um, you know, I, I strongly believe in that and networking has led to so many powerful things and yeah, I met, I met Paul through my friend Kellyanne who now were, we’re building brand together. I met Kellyanne at a high level mastermind. She introduced me to Paul. Paul introduced me to the licensing show. I mean, and, and to so many other people. And so, uh, I’m a strong believer because I’ve seen it sort of manifest in my, you know, in my purposeful here’s of Amazon. Yeah, definitely. Yeah.

Stephen: [36:32] Yeah. And I think that’s important for people to get. It doesn’t happen. It doesn’t happen by accident, right? No, no, I agree. And you’ve got to put your so you got to be a little vulnerable to. You got to put yourself out there and sometimes it’s uncomfortable. You are while you, you can be bold, but you’re shy, right? I mean you are a little bit shy.

Liran: [36:49] Surreal. I mean I, I think there’s, I think there’s definitely a level of being uncomfortable going up to somebody you’ve never met before and saying hello. Right. I think probably for a lot of us and I have that same thing,

Stephen: [37:05] you know, Andy has told me that for him, especially on the brands that he’s building right now, that going to China was a game changer for him. Now you’ve been there a couple times, but it was a, it just changed his whole world. What would you say about, especially your last trip to China and you guys have an upcoming trip we can talk about in a minute, but what would you say that it’s done for you?

Liran: [37:30] It’s a, it’s a, it’s a good question. Definitely there. There’s a few aspects of going to China that I think are worthwhile and I’ll also add a caveat to it, so I didn’t go to China until about a year or so after I got into like private labeling. So I’m not one to say that, you know, you want to get into private label, you have to go to China. I don’t necessarily agree to that. Especially depending on what kind of money you’re kind of playing with, right. If you have $5,000 that you want to start with and that’s all you have going to China is not the best, not the best idea because it’s going to cost you money to go there and, and all that. At the same time, for me, the first, uh, for me going to China has been very powerful in terms of like establishing relationships with my suppliers.

Liran: [38:17] Being able to go to the factory to see the operations, to build a more trusting face to face relationship. There is nothing in my mind that you can do online that compares to a face to face relationship with your supplier to being at the factory, to being in their showroom, to going out dinner with them. Uh, you’re just building relationship and then when a problem arise down the line, they know you, they met you, they trust you, you’re more likely to get things like terms. I mean, there’s so many benefits to being there. So that’s one. And so I would say, you know, if you’ve had a relationship with the supplier for six months or more, you’re reordering from them, et cetera. It makes sense at some point to think about, can I. It doesn’t make sense for me to go out there and meet them and maybe you could do it around the same time as maybe like a canton fair or, you know, some kind of trade show that’s, there are global sources in Hong Kong or something like that.

Liran: [39:08] And sort of kill two birds with one stone. The other part that’s, that, uh, you know, has been successful for me is going to a place like the canton fair to discover new products to see what else is out there to compare suppliers to my supplier. Um, so I think it’s been very powerful and a very much worthwhile to, to go there, um, to be able to participate in trade shows there, to see, to see new products again, to compare quality from what you’re doing to your, to your supplier and then, and then meeting your supplier face to face because I think there are certain things that will come out of that relationship that don’t happen on skype or we chat, for example. Uh, I went to see my supplier, uh, December and June this summer in June, andy and I went to China. We both went to see our suppliers separately.

Liran: [39:55] We flew there together, then both kind of went on our own. And then in October we went to the canton fair. Took a small group. But in June, you know, I’m sitting at my supplier and he says, let me show you some stuff. And he brings out from, from another room some samples that other companies have made and decided like not to make those products some unique products. Stuff that they showed me their, that they never showed me before that during skype it didn’t come up to say, hey, you know what, let me get these products out and show you some stuff that are, that some people just decided to get a sample from us on, on these designs and these things that aren’t, that aren’t protected. They’re not patented. There’s no sort of like anything wrong with that. And show me those products. Say, Hey, is this something you’re interested in maybe making for your brand and you get some ideas and you work and you collaborate.

Liran: [40:41] And um, you know, we were sitting together actually and we were looking at Amazon and like what products can we. It was at the time in June, and this is part of the way how I developed a seasonal product that has done very well for me, this q four. And so that we were sitting there and looking at Amazon, I was showing them some things and best seller ranking and I’ll say, okay, let’s make this product, can you make this product for me because I think this will do really well in q four. And so those are the kinds of conversations and relationships that can potentially come out of being face to face with a supplier. So, um, you know, I think going to try and to visit your existing suppliers and to find and discover new products can be, can be really beneficial as well as the, the outside things that happens in China.

Liran: [41:22] For example, Chris Davie, um, I’ve gotten to be friendly with him. He does a big meetup, uh, you know, in China during phase two and phase three of the canton fair. There’s a couple hundred sellers that go to this bar at night and our own networking, right? Those kinds of things that happen. And those people that are there more serious sellers, they’ve made a trip to China. So there’s, there’s several components, networking, new products, relationships with suppliers that can happen out of making the trip. And so there’s the things that, you know, almost like the intangibles that I think you can really get out of, you know, making a trip like that,

Stephen: [42:02] and it’s, it’s a significant investment in both time and resources. However, the way you’re describing it is the fact that you’re a little more mature in your business now you get to really fine tune by going there. To me, that, that’s very exciting because again, it’s just going to cause you, the changes you’re making are small little changes, however, they have a pretty big impact, right? You’re tweaking. Right? And so I think that’s reasonable. I want to get to to a couple more things. I just want to make sure we get time in for this. I’m sure you do some high level coaching. And so, I mean, I know, I don’t think people really know that. Um, so I’m not embarrassed to say it. I mean, I, I’ve met some of the people that you coach and it’s unbelievable the level that some of their business has gotten to already.

Stephen: [42:50] Is that keep you. I mean, do you get as much from coaching as you do a per, I mean, do you get personally as much helping somebody and then seeing that, I mean, is that very rewarding for you other than the course? And then we can talk about it. I mean amazing freedom separately, but this is Iran. So I mean again, if somebody is interested in Steve doesn’t benefit other than seeing success if you’re interested in a high level code because you listen to the yoga. Um, I don’t think people know that you do that.

Liran: [43:17] Correct? People don’t know that I do that because it’s not something that I advertiser put out there because uh, one of my time is limited. So if somebody comes to me and says, Hey, do you do some consulting or coaching? Then you know, I have the time, then I can take it on. But majority of the time you’re saying no. Correct? Uh, no, not necessarily, but like, it’s not like I get, you know, 10, 20 people coming to me every week asking if I do coaching. I had one person this week, they have a new product, they have a capital investor behind them for potentially for this new product. They’re a, they’ve never had a capital investor and they don’t have experience with this type of product. I actually do. And they asked me if I do some consulting and when the time is right, when they get down to actually doing this deal with this capital investor, if that’s something they can come to me with.

Liran: [44:06] And I said yes, I’m so sometimes I get, you know, so it kind of depends on the situation, but it’s not. Again, it’s not like I get, you know, 10 people coming to me a week, uh, with coaching. But I have some coaching clients that I have regular weekly. In fact, before this call I had a, I had a coaching client that, um, you know, yes, it’s very rewarding to see because I helped him from the beginning to find potential, uh, to find a private label product. Uh, he, I helped him narrow down the choices. I helped him launch a product and he’s having a successful q four with that product right now. Um, and even before q four, he launched it maybe in September or October I think, um, and the product has done very well. And that is, yes, super rewarding for me. And you get sharper.

Liran: [44:53] Yes, yes. And I have to learn myself all the new things that are available, you know, uh, so I’ll give you an example we were talking about on the call before this, we were talking about his PPC and about the new for targeting options that are in auto campaigns. So if you set up a new auto campaign now you’ll see in targeting there are like these four options that you could actually create bids for different categories of like similar products with a loosely related products that are now available. Um, we talked about product targeting Beta that’s now in the manual campaign and sponsored product ads and how we can utilize that. And he hasn’t set that up yet. So I’m encouraging to set that up. I showed him my own campaigns. Um, so I’ll get a little bit deeper in terms of like showing my products and you know, when I, when I have these like sort of coaching relationships, um, and, but yeah, it’s very rewarding to see somebody that you coach have success with the product and do well with it and so, so I get a lot out of it and yeah, I do need to, it does sort of keep me on my toes in terms of, uh, in terms of having to stay up to date with what’s available to us.

Liran: [45:58] There’s a new feature now in sponsored products called portfolios that you could set up and what the advantages of that are and we spoke about that. We spoke about his product pipeline for 2018 that we’re going to create. So yeah, it does definitely. It does definitely keep me on my toes and it’s also very rewarding when I see somebody you have a success with it.

Stephen: [46:17] It’s cool to watch from my little perch. I get to watch these things and when I see it and I actually know the person or whatever, it’s like, wow. I mean, it’s, it’s just neat to me. Okay, so the last, uh, two things out. I guess one thing I’m going to finish up with is that you guys are going to launch your course, so amazing freedom. They’re going to launch the course very soon and uh, this is December, um, this had been December and so usually it’s a January launch and you guys, man, you guys have had a tremendous number of people go through the course and what’s very cool to me is the success because I’m in the, in the group and I see the successes and it’s just like, it, it, it’s very heartwarming. So this is where Steve does benefits. So I am going to put this out here, um, because, um, I appreciate it. Oh, go ahead.

Liran: [47:02] Either way. Yeah, you totally should benefit because a one, you know, as I’m going through through this interview, I’m thinking of how I think you’re one of the best interviewers in this sort of podcast game, um, and also the amount of value that you’re adding to your audience by giving them this free value added content every, every single week. And so as you introduce things to your audience, you absolutely, you know, uh, should, should benefit from it, but, you know, yes, you’re adding, you’re adding value, you know, every, every single week.

Stephen: [47:35] I appreciate that. That’s very kind, you know, that means a lot coming from you who gets the best from me every single time he know he does. And, and I, and I appreciate that because you know, you have pretty high standards. Um, so, so the deal this time is a, so there’s no difference in cost. I mean, you buy it through me, I benefit period. I always say that you guys pay me, so I never hide that fact. I’m always very careful about that. But I talked to Andy and I asked him for something just a little bit special and so you have to private message me and I’ll put a commercial out. I don’t know if I’ll have it on this episode but in the next couple, but if you private message me, I’ll, I’ll put you on this little list and I’ll prep your order personally, me and my wife and my son in our warehouse.

Stephen: [48:16] So you can have your first order up to thousand units. I’m going to say I don’t want you to send a giant tractor trailer loads to the warehouse, but we have a loading dock so you don’t have to pay any special fees. Um, and I’ll prep it for you. I’ll do a cursory inspection, all the stuff that we normally do. However, then Andy and you don’t even know this. Ron Is Andy and I. well this is, this is good. I didn’t commit you to anything, although you’re welcome to join us. Andy and I will get on a two hour conference call. We’ll do a two hour conference call, will be in the warehouse and anybody who comes through this link will get on the phone and you can join the call and we’ll do deep dives and that’s when you can ask questions all the way through from the beginning to the end.

Stephen: [48:58] I’m in a private call additional in addition to all the other things that you get with the group. So, so a little special. I asked them for something just a little bit special to if somebody is interested in joining through me and then you have access to me in, in the competence that I have with these guys. Um, which is always awesome. Whenever I message I always get an answer immediately. I don’t even say almost immediately, especially if I do it at night because you and nate are always awake and always ready to answer questions. So if you’re interested in that, just private message me and then I’ll have you added to the list before we market to death to you. Um, but I think it’s very cool and I’m very excited about it because again, when I sit back and I watched the people that are having success, you know, the retreats and this stuff, all this stuff you guys do. Um, it’s been phenomenal and I don’t want to miss this too, is that you do have another opportunity to go to China. Um, and I think it’s April, correct? Yes. In April. So if you’re interested in it. So those are the things that you’re going to find in the image. It’s amazing. Freedom Dot com, right. So that’s part of it and I’m not gonna mention the courts here again. You just private message me because it’s not launched yet. Go ahead.

Liran: [50:03] Yeah. I want to add something about the course. Something that we’re doing very differently. Um, you know, the course is ripe for an update, um, and uh, because of, because it really needs a, you know, things change on Amazon, right? So, uh, one of the benefits you get when you join the course is that you get the updates a continuum as we, as we, as we update the course, if we update the course for the next five years, you’ll continue to get those, those updates. Um, but what we’re doing an Amazon is constantly changing it. We just spoke about these things that are available to you now and in, in PPC that weren’t available, you know, six months ago. And so that needs an update. And so what we’re doing is we’re going to be doing sort of like a live update to the course which we’re calling a live bootcamp.

Liran: [50:48] So in January we’re going to do nine weeks of sort of live from week one to, um, you know, two, two, two, two to nine weeks of taking you through everybody together, not just giving you course and the videos, but taking you through live one live webinars where we’re going to go from, I’m actually week one is almost going to be like a pre intro. That’s where people who maybe have not really don’t know Amazon, that well, probably not your audience very much, but it’s going to be all about the basics of seller central and, and things like that. But from week to finding private label products a week, three vetting products, prelaunch strategies, we’re going to talk about ranking and traffic colluding outside traffic sponsored as in PBC, a marketing strategies, Amazon giveaways, influencers, coupons, promo codes, lightening deals, all these things. Review, follow up emails, um, building your brand on Amazon, would like advanced tactic, headline ads targeting against all these things.

Liran: [51:45] We’re going to take you through a nine weeks of a, of a live boot camp. Um, and of course those webinars or live you can answer a question. You can ask questions, there’s going to be recording so you can follow up in our inner circle group with that. So it was pretty exciting because we’ve never done this before and sort of like taking people through the course, but in a live week by week, um, environment and of course, again, you’ll have access to the, to the chorus is that this will then probably update the course and then also, obviously it’s all recorded and you can go your own at your own pace. Um, but we’re gonna we’re gonna Kinda take you through the process so that you go from the beginning to, you know, the last step with everybody else that’s joining at the same time. And also this will be for our existing members, a great refresher. So these are the kinds of things we do in the, in the inner circle group. We do monthly webinars every single month. Um, answer questions. I usually do a facebook live in the group every week, uh, with something that’s, you know, that I’m doing in my business or that we’re updating. So, uh, really excited about this bootcamp because I think it’s going to be a, it’s going to be a little bit different and a little bit more interactive part of our, of our training.

Stephen: [52:56] I appreciate that you’re willing to say, hey, I’m not letting it just sit and get stale. It needs a refresh. It needs an update. That’s not what most in a, not criticizing others, but that’s usually people just set it and forget it and you know, things change and let’s face it, things change by the day and Amazon and so, so it’s very cool. Um, again, that you guys update it and then you continue on. The things that I see to the group are you get to ask the stupid question that you’re to ask or somebody else asks it and then you’re like, wait, you can ask a question like that. Yes. Because I mean, it’s not stupid if you don’t understand it, right?

Stephen: [53:36] It’s very cool. So again, if you private message be a push on a secret list, well that’s true, but you private message me and I’ll put you on my little secret list and uh, um, and I’ll get you a link, um, that I would appreciate it.

Liran: [53:48] That. And I would say don’t underestimate the value of a two hour call like that because. Oh yeah, because you could get really specific. Yes. Because those individual questions that you might not want to ask in a group environment, you might want to say, hey, this is the product I’m considering. You might not want to share that with, you know, 250 other people that are in our private group, but in a, you know, and we do have a, I’ll say we do have this product evaluation guide that you can submit to us as, as part of the course to where you get, we get to vet your ideas so you can submit a form to us with what product you’re thinking about. And we, and we vet that. Um, so you can certainly do that in the course. But there’s this aspect of this live coaching that, um, you know, yeah, usually if I want to do a live one on one coaching call, I’m gonna have to charge for that because that’s my time.

Liran: [54:30] It could be doing other things. And so I’m a two hour call. I wouldn’t underestimate the amount of value, um, you know, for that call and it doesn’t need to be a call that you have the first day you’re in the course, you can take advantage of this call two months in after you’ve done some product research already. You’re thinking about five potential product ideas and now you sit down with Steve. Andy, if I’m available, I’ll, uh, I’ll jump on it too and we can then go very deep into exactly what you’re doing, where you might not want to post that kind of question in a, in a more public group. So, uh, there’s a lot of value in that.

Stephen: [55:05] And the same goes for the prepping. I mean, your first shipment doesn’t have to be the one that you can send me. I mean, you might want to get yours usually send by air to you anyway, and then when you’re ready you can have the pallet shipped here, containers, we can receive all that. So. All right, very cool. So if somebody wants to follow up, I’m going to put your facebook contact. Um, an amazing freedom.com is the website where you guys preach. The facebook group is free to join, but you guys make sure that they’re real, correct?

Liran: [55:33] Yes, yes. We have a vetting process. I would, you know, I’m kind of proud of the fact that we’re one of the least spend spammy group out there because we don’t, you know, we, we don’t have a 30,000 members, but we also don’t let anybody in a, we don’t just let anybody in, you know, uh, we uh, you know, when people are joining, when, when there’s freight forwarder people joining from China in the middle of the night, we don’t let those people and they’re just gonna they’re just going to be there to spend the group. Right? So we’re more about, uh, you know, having a, a quality quality type groups. So there’s about 12,000 sellers that are in the group and yes, we very much vet to have as little span kind of posts in the group as possible.

Stephen: [56:15] Awesome. Well Man, I wish you nothing but success. Thank you so much. Liberal.

Liran: [56:20] Thank you. Stephen. You know, I’ll be seeing you soon. We’re going, uh, you’re coming to New York and going to see pictures of us. Yeah. I’m not sure if this will be out before or after. I think this maybe before we’ll see. I’ll see what I could do. So yes, we’ll uh, I’m looking forward to seeing you in New York City, uh, soon.

Stephen: [56:36] Peace my friend. Take care and what a great guy. What a great story and he’s always willing to help. I don’t care whatever question I have and I get a lot of questions from a lot of people and I don’t have a lot of the answers so I reach out to the experts that I know and whenever I ask always an answer 100 percent and always like, hey, haven’t reached out to me, let me help him or whatever. I mean just so giving. And I really appreciate what he said is givers gain, um, give her givers gain value by, and I added by helping others. And I just think that that is such a powerful statement. Great Guy, a great story. ECOMMERCE momentum.com, ecommerce momentum.com. Take care.

Cool voice guy: [57:16] Thanks for listening to the ECOMMERCE momentum podcast. All the links mentioned today can be found at incomers momentum. Doug, come under this episode number. Please remember to subscribe and the lake us on